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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29638998">On Solid Ground</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/undeadstoryteller/pseuds/undeadstoryteller'>undeadstoryteller</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:02:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>634</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29638998</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/undeadstoryteller/pseuds/undeadstoryteller</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This vignette is a gift for smaaenart on Tumblr and features their OC Tasia, daughter of Rian and Deet. When I heard that Tasia is a girl Gelfling without wings, I wanted to write her.</p>
<p>This story is not connected to my other Dark Crystal fics.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Deet/Rian (Dark Crystal)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>On Solid Ground</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Wings up, girls!" </p>
<p>Instructor Lidia stood, back arched, wings splayed in a spectacular fashion, as the young Gelfling girls stood in a line before her, all trying (and failing) to look like her.</p>
<p>All except for Tasia. For three trine now, she watched her friends line up before Instructor Lidia to learn how to use their newly budded wings.</p>
<p>"She's just a late bloomer," she would hear her father say when her parents thought she was asleep. "Mythra didn't get hers until she was twelve."</p>
<p>Twelve was a late bloomer. Fourteen going on fifteen was something else. </p>
<p>"Tasia's just different, Rian," her mother would say. "She doesn't need wings."</p>
<p>"Of course not," he would say. "But children can be cruel."</p>
<p>Tasia rubbed a tiny nub on her back where a girl's wings were meant to be. Her father was right, children could be cruel, but worse was the feeling that she wasn't truly a girl.</p>
<p>She watched as the other girls flapped around clumsily. Within a few days they would be flying almost as well as adults, learning air tricks and playing aerial games. They always did.</p>
<p>Tasia walked away, taking a path into the forest she knew so well. Maybe there was something else she was good at. She could run pretty fast, but admittedly, she wasn't the fastest. Her parents complimented her artwork, but no one else did. </p>
<p>She stopped short just as she was about to walk face first into a peachberry. She blinked and plucked it from it's branch. As she took a bite, her eyes gazed upward into the trees. The light peeking through was an impossibly beautiful sight. </p>
<p>Other girls could fly up into the trees. </p>
<p>Tasia spit the peachberry pit into her palm and dropped it on the forest floor. </p>
<p>Up ahead, she could hear the stacking of wood outside of her family's hut. That morning, her father had asked if she would help him deliver firewood to the Great Hall in Stone-in-the-Wood. </p>
<p>She had refused. She had done worse than refused -- she had talked back and stomped away indignantly. </p>
<p>Stacking wood wasn't what she was supposed to be doing that day.</p>
<p>She sighed, and approached the clearing where her family lived on the edge of the Stonewood village. </p>
<p>The handcart was half filled with wood. Without a word, Tasia went to the pile, picked up two pieces of wood and, as her father watched, laid them in the cart.</p>
<p>She brushed her hands off on her tunic and looked at him. "I'm sorry," she said.</p>
<p>He pulled several logs from the pile and put them in the cart. He paused and crossed his arms, not looking at her.</p>
<p>"Father --"</p>
<p>"I'm not angry with you," he said. He looked at her, finally. "I saw the girls doing aerial practice. I didn't know that was starting today."</p>
<p>She nodded.</p>
<p>He pulled a last couple of logs and put them in the cart. "I know it's hard for you," he said. "I wish it wasn't. There's nothing wrong with you."</p>
<p>"How can you say that?"</p>
<p>"Plenty of Gelfling don't have wings," he said.</p>
<p>"Men," she said, her eyes dropping.</p>
<p>"And sometimes Gelfling who are not men. Sometimes women." Rian touched her chin to draw her eyes up. </p>
<p>"I just want to be like everyone else," she said. "I want to be like Mother."</p>
<p>"Well," he said, "I'm proud of you as you are."</p>
<p>Tasia crossed her arms, barely able to suppress a smile. "You have to say that."</p>
<p>Rian shrugged. "My father never told me that." He went around to the front of the handcart and picked up the handles. "Not in so many words, anyway."</p>
<p>She approached the cart and grasped one of the handles.</p>
<p>"Can I come with you?" she asked.</p>
<p>He smiled. "Of course you can."</p>
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